"Here we are, Surf Harbor Apartments," said the taxi cab driver. Harlow looked up from her cellphone. Yep, there they were. She remembered them from when she was trying out to be a lifeguard a week ago. She handed the driver her fare and slid across the backseat towards the door. The driver pulled away. She couldn't believe her luck at snagging this apartment. It was very close to her lifeguard post and very nice she'd read. She walked along the side walk until she got in the building. It was very pretty. It's style kind of reminded her of home. Home.... Indignantly she shook the thought from her head. She was here now and determined to make it her home. Walking into the building her flip flops barely made a sound on the marble floor. Not like she could have heard them anyways because there was shortly up ahead a bustling cafe. She looked around. Straight ahead was a silver elevator, to her right an office which read Landlord on the door, to her left and slightly ahead the cafe. Along the walls of the entrance hall were smooth, mahogany tables with vases on them, a few elegant winged back chairs and a large ornate mirror on the walls to her left and right. She caught a glimpse of herself in one. Her brown hair was up in a ponytail, her skin tan, brown eyes the color of chocolate were hidden behind sunglasses, dressed in a white tank top, khaki shorts and flip flops. She knocked on the Landlord's door and heard a male voice say, "Come in". She walked in to see a man behind a desk. He looked to be in his late 20's to her. He had kind eyes and sandy blonde hair that was cut short "Good Morning, have a seat," he said while wearing a smile. "Good morning, my name is Harlow Morelli. I talked to you on the phone about renting an apartment. Is there still one available?," she asked while taking a seat on a chair in front of his desk. "Oh of course, I remember you Miss Morelli," he said "There are a few apartments left. You wanted one on the second floor, correct?". "That's correct,", she said. He grabbed a pen from his desk and wrote down a few things. He handed her a few papers to fill out. She filled them out while he typed away on his computer. She put her papers and pen down. "All done?," he asked. "Yep, I think so", Harlow said. He took her papers and read over them. "Everything looks in order," he said. He put the papers away in a file cabinet. He reached opened a drawer in his desk and dug around. When his hand emerged he was holding a key that had "2a" written on it. He handed the key over to her and said, "Here you are." "Thanks!," Harlow exclaimed. He looked at the floor near her feet. "You don't have any luggage with you?" he asked looking perplexed. "It's going to be delivered to me later today," she explained. "Ah," he said. Harlow stuffed the key in her pocket and picked up her bag. She said her goodbye to Aspen, the landlord and moved on toward the elevator. The ride up was short. Standing in front of 2a she stuck her key into the lock. I hope this was the right move, she thought.

_________________Charis humin kai eirēnē ϟ Actually I prefer to be called ‘Ruler of All That is Evil’, but I will answer to Satan.dearlace ~ simblr ~ skittles rainbowcy

Alec was in his living room watching TV when a knock from the door came. He paused the noon time news, and strided to the door, he had always walked with a panther like grace. When he opened the door he saw a short, thin girl with red pigtails. "Have you heard!" She exclaimed. "Heard what?" he asked with a perplexed look on his face. "We have a new neighbor, in fact i think she lives right next to you." It wasnt strange really, in the past 2 months since the apartments opened, huge loads of people had come rushing around the world to see, and be part of Tercer Beach. "Oh?" he said, "Well i guess i should go meet them then..." He closed the door slightly, and padded over to 2A.

Edmund was busy researching in his 3rd floor apartment, he clicked away on his tiny mouse from website to website and after about 2 hours a knock was on the door. Edmund got up from his seat and walked gracefully to the door and looked through the small peephole, there was a woman with blonde hair and red lipstick, he opened the door. "Edmund!" she said while tumbling forward to hug Edmund. "Salma!" he exclaimed in return while hugging in return. "It's been so long, how have you been?" she asked, "I've been good, been doing much work as you can see." he replied, "Well, I got you this from my trip to the Carribean?" she told me, surprisingly he's always wanted to go overseas but he never had the time what with all this research.

"Oh, a gift bag that's so sweet of you, well I need to get back to my research, see you later." he said while waving away. "Ciao, Ed!" she said as she closed the door behind her. "Well, what's gonna be in this bag?" and before he could dive into the bag, another knock was on the door. "Oh who is it now?" complained Edmund, he walked to the door opened it and Salma quickly said "Hey look, there's a new girl moving in!", "New girl? I'll be down in a minute to see her." and as Edmund got dressed, Salma ran down to 2A to see the new girl.

It was a balmy thursday afternoon, and Alec was currently making a venti mocha frappicino for some bitchy large woman. Harlow had been a nice girl, with a soft mediterreanean face. He had gone and introduced himself, and told her she could stop by anytime. He was snapped out of his thoughts from the large woman. "Well what are you doing!" she weezed, "You young people are so slow,". "Sorry ma'am." He said before rolling his eyes.

After work he walked the 15 minutes it took to get back to the apartment's. When he came through the door, his cat Meowingtons came rushing at him. Meowingtons had black and white splotchy fur, and vibrant green eyes. "Hmm Home..." He though.

Mitchell stepped back into consciousness, the island sun burning through the French double doors of his top-level apartment. The locals had mentioned that the sun wasn't too bad this time of year, but for a Mancunian, any temperature above 15 degrees Celsius was almost too much first thing on a morning. "- Make that afternoon," Mitch thought to himself as he gazed at his iPhone, reading the time as 14:37. He didn't care too much about what time he slept, because it didn't matter. No one on this island knew him just yet, except for the middle-aged landlord, Aspen, who simply referred to him as 'Mister Young'. He didn't really care much about the island, or how popular it was. In his eyes, anywhere other than his family's three bedroom semi-detached home in Manchester was paradise.He wearily pushed himself out of the double bed, taking care not to trip on his bags of belongings that he was too lazy to unpack. Entering his en-suite bathroom, Mitch picked up the half destroyed toothbrush, the only unpacked item other than a pair of Converse, some River Island skinny jeans and a plain grey vest. The deafening noise of a car horn beeping came from the slightly opened window in the front room. Mitch heaved himself again, moving slowly onto the front balcony."You." he announced from the balcony, wearing a pair of long grey pyjama bottoms. "Do you mind being a little quieter with that monster machine of yours?""Sorry," a female American voice answered. "I'm waiting for someone, and she's taking her time." A head of long curly blonde hair and large sunglasses appeared from a red sports car outside the apartments."Yeah, well, you don't have to beep that bloody horn. Some people have just woke up, y'know.""It's nearly three in the afternoon, you can't have seriously just woke up?""It was jet lag," Mitch lied. He'd already been on the island a week, and moved from the hotel in the city yesterday afternoon."Yeah, you didn't sound like one of the locals," the girl shouted from the car. A tan girl with similarly styled brown hair exited the building. "Anyway, I'd love to carry on talking about your sleeping habits, but my friend's here, so I gotta go." She revved the engine as she prepared to move back onto the road. "Oh, and by the way, you can see through your pyjamas."She drove off, an embarrassed Mitch blushed as the engine only just masked the sound of him shouting, "Yeah... it's meant to be like that!"

Kenzie Ross glanced up at her apartment building as she ran past it, noticing movement in the vacant apartment on the second floor. 'Maybe it's a cute guy!' she thought before shaking her head and chiding herself for thinking like that. She knew she needed to be on her own for a while but it was a hard habit to break. She hadn't been single for more than a month since she was 14 years old and had only had two long-term relationships during those 18 years, in the midst of many fleeting romances. She continued jogging down the beach as she brushed a strand of long, brown hair from her face. This was the one time she didn't cover her bright, blue eyes with sunglasses in public - when she was running too fast for anyone to get a good look at her. Kenzie hated being recognized. No one ever wanted to get to know her, most people were more interested in getting to know the character she played in one of the many movies she starred in. Sometimes she felt like screaming at them but she knew she couldn't - that's why she left. When she finally admitted to herself that she hated everyone and everything in her life, she knew it was time to leave.

She had only been in Tercer Beach for a little over a month. That was twice as long as she had stayed in France and a week short of her stay in Canada. She desperately wanted to find someplace she could feel comfortable and call home and was determined to give Tercer Beach an honest try.

Kenzie slowed to a walk as she approached the Smoothie Stand, about a mile down the beach. She smiled at the man behind the counter and leaned in to give him a hug. "How's my girl today?" Henry asked as he started to make a strawberry smoothie - Kenzie's favorite.

"Better now," Kenzie replied, scooting up so she was sitting on the counter, "How is Marilyn doing?"

"She's a bigger pain in my ass every day." he replied, winking.

Kenzie laughed and shook her head, "In other words, she's feeling better." Henry nodded, agreeing. Henry had been the first person to approach her at Tercer Beach. She did her best to ignore him but he just kept talking and before long, she was laughing with him. When he invited her over for supper to meet his wife, she was more nervous than she had been before any date or concert, and worried that Henry's wife would have a problem with him talking to such a young, beautiful girl. It was just the opposite. Marilyn was recovering from an automobile accident and had a broken arm and broken leg, but Kenzie had never known a more gracious host. Since then, the couple, who were in their 50's and had been married for over 30 years, had become something like surrogate parents to her and she loved them more than anyone else in the world.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I went fishing and caught a shark?" Henry asked as he handed her the smoothie. Kenzie smiled and shook her head as she settled in for story time.

Layla woke up that morning in a cold sweat, another horrifying nightmare about Matt and her senior year of high school. Seeing the sun already high up, she realized it was already lunch time ad decided it was time to get up. She stretched and walked out onto her balcony, a normal sunny day, when she heard many voices coming down from the floor beneath her. Layla liked the quiet, and kept to herself mot of the time, she didn't need any more action going on in the apartments. Trying to ignore the noise, she pulled on a simple tshirt and shorts and decided to bring a book down to the pool and read. Finding a lounge chair in a nice sunny spot, she relaxed and began her book where she last left it. She had hardly read half the page when her phone vibrated in her pocket. Layla did not often give her phone number out, so whoever was texting her must be important. She put her book down and saw that the message was from her brother Andrew and said "Are you ever going to call me? Or mom? Or dad? We're worried about you.."

With a sigh Layla deleted the message, and put her phone back in her pocket. She suddenly did not feel like reading her book and leaned back and closed her eyes.

Alec was walking on the beach, trying to give Meowingtons some excercise by taking him for a walk, it wasnt working. A while up the beach he saw a cozy little smoothie stand. It had nice blue trim, and a tiki roof. The sign said Henry's Smoothies. There was a young woman sitting there. She couldnt have been older than 25, had bright blue eyes, and a nice soft brown hair. Alec slid into a seat beside her. "What can i get for you?" A man behind the counter asked. "Hmm, how about a double trouble banana swirl-alot-alot," The man winked at the girl beside Alec and left to make the drink. "Hey," He said to the girl. "Oh hi," she said a bit nervously. "You look new here, havent seen you around before," "No, ive been here for about a month actually, was in Canada before," "Well nice to meet you, Im Alec... Alec Harondale" He said. "Kenzie Ross, pleasure to meet you." Alec smirked, "Well arent i lucky? Meeting lots of new friends this week!" Kenzie let out a laugh. After getting his smoothie, and talking to Kenzie for a while, Alec looked at his watch. "Shit! Ive gotta be somewhere, see you later, oh here's my number if you ever want to hangout, im over at Surf Harbour Apartment's," Kenzie gasped. "Ohmigod! Me too, maybe I'll see you around sometime," "Yeah maybe, but i really got to go, see you around Kenzie." With that he walked off with his cat in his hand's in the direction of the apartments...

Savannah stepped out onto to the balcony. The sun was beaming on her face and she stood there basking in its warmth. “Today is going to be a good day.” she said to herself. While at the pool yesterday, she had heard about a new girl moving in but she couldn’t be bothered with that right now. Her cellphone began to ring. It was her agent. She quickly answered. "Guess What?" the agent said. "What?" Savannah answered. "You booked a photoshoot! Its at the beach be there at ten." Savannah screamed. This is what she had been waiting for her whole life. She quickly grabbed her keys and walked out of the door. Out of excitement, she had forgotten to lock the door allowing a cat to get in.

Kenzie said goodbye to Henry and started to stroll down the beach, back to her apartment. She picked up her pace and smiled to herself as she thought of Alec. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, cute too, and she was glad that she knew someone else in the building. Tercer Beach was different than the many cities and towns she had visited in the past two years. It was someplace she could see herself staying and settling down.

When Kenzie returned to Surf Harbour, she bumped in to a pretty blond girl by the elevator. "Sorry!" Kenzie exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it." the girl said as she rushed out the door, keys jingling.

Kenzie couldn't remember her name, although she was sure she had heard it somewhere. It was something that started with an S. Sarah? No, that wasn't it. For a second she felt bad for not remembering, afterall her and the blond girl were the only two people living on the first floor but Alec was the only person from the apartment building that she had actually met. She knew of the others, though. One of the great things about her dark sunglasses was the ability to watch without anyone knowing they were being watched...

Layla woke up about an hour later, she was lucky she didn't get a sunburn, fortunately her sunny spot had turned into a shady spot as the sun moved overhead. Checking the time she found that it was almost four o' clock, and she couldn't remember if she had to work tonight or if it was tomorrow. Quickly walking to the cafe, she checked the schedule and saw that she did not have a shift until two days from now. Unsure what to do with this free time, Layla decided to go check out the smoothie stand that seemed to be getting a lot of business lately. She ran up to her apartment quickly to change because he clothes had become sweaty after sleeping in the sun. She put on a pale green tank top and some white shorts and went out the door, when her pug, Sampson, starting barking wildly. "Sampson! I'll be back in an hour I promise!" She said as she closed the door.

She soon reached the smoothie stand which was surprisingly void of customers. Cautiously sitting down, the man behind the counter asked her what she wanted sweetly.

"A blueberry smoothie please" and within minutes she had a tall blueberry smoothie in front of her waiting to be drunk. Slowly sipping on the straw, Layla just looked around and felt a strange sense of loneliness.

After an hour or so of lazing about in his apartment, Mitchell decided that it was about time he put on some clothes and headed outside. He thought of the blonde girl in the car this morning, but only for a moment. People had always been no more than just a fragment in his mind- they were there for a minute, and then he forgot about them. Pulling his iPhone from the dock on the bedside table, he left the apartment and headed down to the beach."For an island town, the beach seems pretty deserted," he thought to himself. There were a couple of single figures walking along the edge of the sand with their dogs, and a family laying under a parasol on the centre of the beach. Apart from these people, Mitch could only see a small stand at the far end of the beach. He began to trek across the sand to see what appeared to be the only source of entertainment on the beach besides a rather attractive topless sunbather. He arrived at the smoothie bar and sat next to the only customer, a girl about the same age as him, with blonde curly hair and blue eyes."What can I get you?" asked the male behind the counter of the bar."I have got a splitting headache," Mitch began. "You got anything with alcohol?" The man replied with a blank expression. "No?" Mitch questioned, feeling a little cheeky. "Well, anything with coconuts, I'm not too arsed."The girl next to him took a sip of her blue coloured smoothie, as she looked over and smiled. "Hi." She greeted warmly. Just noticing her, Mitch turned his head and replied with a "Hey." before revealing the phone from his pocket and proceeding to play a game. The girl looked away, obviously unhappy with his near-emotionless response.

A boy who looked about Layla's age sat down next to her and rudely asked the man behind the counter for a smoothie to help his headache. Ignoring his attitude and just happy to see another human, Layla said "Hi" to him, trying not to sound too desperate for attention. Coldly he said "Hey" and turned to his cellphone. Glancing over at the screen, she saw that he would rather play a little game than talk to her. Layla, who had had enough stress and pestering from her family for the day started to get angry. She knew she wasn't unattractive, I mean if she could attract Matt, who was handsome on the outside, why couldn't she even spark an interest in this boy? With this sudden burst of emotion, Layla smiled at the man behind the counter, thanked him for the smoothie and left him a nice tip. She got up and took a few steps before saying loudly "Oh wait!" She sauntered back, leaned on the counter with her arm and said said with a fake smile "Enjoy your game".

And with that, Layla walked with her head high, an excited feeling burning deep within her. For the first time in her life, Layla had stood up for herself.

Mitch spun around on the stool outside the smoothie bar, confused at what the girl that was previously beside him had said before swanning off. He had barely reached the second level of Tetris before he pressed the lock button on his phone, suspending the game. He stood up and followed the blonde girl."Hey, hey, what do you mean by that?" Mitch said, still bewildered, but wanting to have the last word. The girl, full of confidence, ignored him and carried on walking at a steady pace. He jogged to catch up with her; "I said- what do you mean by that?"The girl turned to face him, still full of certainty. "I get it, if you don't wanna talk, you don't have to. You could've just been a little more polite.""Look, sorry." he replied. "I'm, just, not... good at, talking. To people. I'd rather shout, or take the piss. So yeah, sorry." He began to walk back to the coconut smoothie that the guy behind the bar had finished preparing."Whatever, no worries." She continued to walk away as Mitchell sat back at the bar, thinking over what his small gesture had done to that girl. But he didn't really care. The island was full of tourists, he would most likely never see her again.

"Whatever, no worries" Layla said and she kept walking. Surprised the boy had even caught up with her to apologize, Layla stole a glance behind her as the boy walked back, and without realizing it, Layla had smiled. Snapping back to reality, Layla felt kind of tired and decided to go back to her apartment. When she opened the door, Sampson ran from the couch and lept up into her arm's, genuinely happy to see her. Closing the door, Layla said "At least I can always count on you to keep me company here". Grabbing a blanket and sitting own with Sampson in her lap she sat on her couch and watched some tv for an hour before feeling bored, again. "Sampson, I cant believe I'm saying this but I actually wish I was working tonight!" she said. It was only seven, she could still find something to do. Grabbing a blue and white bikini, she went down to the hot tub, which was empty. Before getting in, she went to the cafe and bought a sprite to enjoy while she was soaking. Slipping into the hot tub, the sky was already getting dark and a few stars were starting to shine. Layla sighed and felt very relaxed.

After about an hour of idle talk with Henry, the guy behind the Smoothie Bar, Mitch decided to return back to the apartments. He lounged on the couch in the front room, aimlessly scanning through the channels on the television. One thing he missed the most about England was the programming- there always seemed to be something decent to watch, or if not, he had a room full of DVDs lined up on shelves ready for him. His exit from England was abrupt, forcing him to leave most of his belongings at home.Six O'Clock approached. He sat watching some gameshow. Then seven. He tuned into an incredibly overacted soap opera. Then eight. As the final moments of "The Rich and The Heartless" concluded, Mitch stood up, desperate for something to do. He took an elevator down to the ground floor, where the café was starting to pack up for the night. Buying a can of Coke, he began to make a turn back to the elevator, before spotting a familiar figure outside. Familiar was something Mitch hadn't yet become accustomed to on the island. He exited into the courtyard, where the girl he had met earlier was drinking a can of Sprite in the hot tub."What the... what are you doing here?" He was getting used to asking questions in this place.

It was 8 pm. And Alec had the night off. He was flipping through his Tivo recordings, when he decided he wanted to socialize, after all it had been a month since he'd arrived, and he only knew two girl's, who both happened to be in his same apartment complex.

He exited the elevator, and walked across the marble lobby. As he reached the door that led into The Daily Grind cafe he noticed a huge line. "shit" he thought aloud. He decided that he would go for a nighttime swim, after all he had been visiting the gym a lot, seeing as how he had known noone. And he hoped to show off his body. When he got back to the pool area, he noticed someone was already at the hottub. He slid in and found it to be quite outside. There was a girl with a perky face in the tub, and a handsome guy was standing beside her, asking her why the hell she was here. "This could get bloody awkward..." he muttered under his breath, as he watched them out of the corner of his eye.

"Why can't you ever do anything right?! God I don't know what I'm going to do with you!""I wish you wouldn't talk to me like that..""I wish you wouldn't be a useless girl!"Layla was staring straight ahead, memories floating up like the bubbles in the hot tub.

"What are you doing here?" Layla blinked quickly, and looked up to see that someone else had gotten into the hot tub, as well as the boy from the smoothies stand earlier. The boy in the hot tub looked the same age as her. "Jeez, how many teenage guys are from around here?" she thought to herself.

"I-um- live here? Is that a problem or something?" She said, looking up, but not with the same confidence as earlier.

The girl looked shell shocked, as if she had just seen or heard something terrifying. And the guy just looked confused. alec cleared his throat. "ummm, do either of you know of any good shopping area's around here? Or cafe's?" He blurted the first thing that came out of his mouth. An awkward silence carried on for a few moments.

Raven grimaced and looked at her watch."8:17pm," she thought to herself, "Only 43 more minutes of this torture."She let out a small sigh before pushing open the doors separating the cafe from the frenzied kitchen. As she looked out over the restaurant floor she felt a wave of nausea set in. The whole place was in pandemonium. Nevertheless, she summoned up a false smile and walked over to a table. A very, very large man and his wife were seated, talking to each other in a Texan drawl."Hi," Raven began, trying to sound as sweet as possible, "My name is Raven and I will be your waitress tonight."The large man thought for a moment before turning to her and replying."Well hi there lil' missy!" he began, "My name is Brad, and I'll be your customer tonight!"Raven forced a quick chuckle before turning away and rolling her eyes. She had lost track of how many times people had said that to her since her shift started."Is there anything I can get you two?" she asked, plastering the smile back on her face."Well now you mention it, there is!" Brad replied.As she began to take his order, Raven glanced up at the doors of the cafe. People were quite literally lining up outside. Wondering what the commotion was all about, she noticed one of her neighbours looking in. She gave him a quick wave before looking back at her customers. He didn't seem to notice, and wandered off towards the pool area."Well that was embarrassing," Raven thought to herself.And then, almost suddenly, she remembered who would be up in her apartment."Oh bloody hell," she thought to herself, "That new Italian chick must be here by now."Getting a roommate was never something she was keen about. Waitressing while she figured out what to do with her life was not as glamorous as Hollywood made it out to be, and in the few short months she had been living on Tercer Beach she found herself not being able to pay the already minimal rent. "Hopefully," she thought, "with a roommate I'll be able to get back on my feet."Shaken back into reality, she remembered where she was. Looking back down at the couple she smiled at them once again.The friendly Texan's wife suddenly glared at her."Stop your lollygagging around and our order damnit!" she began, "These blasted foreigners can't be trusted with anything these days!"Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Although many people had mentioned her accent while she served them, none of them had ever complained about it.She summoned up all the courage and spat back a reply. Thanks to American TV and a severe amount of free time in her early teens, she had been able to master a number of American accents."Oh I'm sorry," she began, mimicking the woman, "Is this better for y'all?"Switching to a slower, New Orleans drawl she continued."How 'bout this?"And again in a more subtle New York one."Or this?"The woman looked flabbergasted, she opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before glaring at Raven.Her husband was more amused, he began chucking in his seat before putting a hand on her shoulder."Aw honey, lighten up, it was all just a joke is what it is."By now Raven's mouth was sore from smiling so she quickly told them their order would be out momentarily before turning away and walking back into the kitchen. Slumping against the wall, she let out a small sigh."My arse is so fired..." she thought to herself, "Now I'll definitely be needing that roommate."